Like most major U.S. cities, my home town, Boston, is a wonderful mélange of people from many different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Boston’s North End, rich in colonial history, is today home to a vibrant Italian-American community. One of my favorite activities has always been to stroll along the narrow streets of the North End enjoying the commotion (I did, after all, spend my childhood years in Brooklyn, New York) while, along the way, sampling the fare at a few of the many Italian eateries, specialty food stores and, of course, bakeries.

The signature bread of Boston’s Italian-American community is Scali, a braided, olive oil-enriched Italian bread sprinkled with sesame seeds. Scali has a soft crust and a relatively tight, although quite light, crumb. The formula used here is an adaptation of one described on the King Arthur Flour website. To obtain the lightness of crumb characteristic of Scali, the double flour addition technique was used.

Biga

120 g King Arthur Organic Select Artisan Flour

75 g Water

1/8 tsp. Instant Yeast

Final Dough

240 g King Arthur Organic Select Artisan Flour

145 g Water

8 g Salt

2 tsp. Instant Yeast

10 g Non-fat Dry Milk

2 tbs. Olive Oil

195 g (all of the above) Biga

The night before baking, the biga is prepared by mixing the flour, water and yeast until all the ingredients are well incorporated, then hand kneading briefly until a smooth dough is formed. The biga is then placed in a covered container and allowed to rest at 70ºF overnight until mature, about 12 hours.

The next day, the flour, salt, yeast and non-fat dry milk are combined. To the bowl of a stand mixer is added the water and olive oil. Using the whisk attachment, the water and olive oil are whisked together on speed 3 of the mixer. Slowly, enough of the flour mixture is added (~40 g) until a stable, aerated emulsion is formed. The mixer is then stopped and the remaining flour mixture is added along with the biga. Using a spiral dough hook, the mixture is mixed on speed 3 until a firm, medium developed dough is achieved, about 6 minutes. The resulting dough is then covered and allowed to ferment at 76ºF for 1 hour, 15 minutes.

After the first fermentation, the dough is turned out onto a lightly-floured surface and is divided into three equal-weight pieces. Each piece is preshaped into a short log and allowed to rest for 10 minutes. After the rest period, each log is then extended into a tapered strand using the same technique used for shaping baguettes, as shown in the video here. Shaping into a 3-stranded braid is then accomplished as shown below:

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The braided loaf is then placed on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet, brushed with an egg white wash, made from one egg white and 1 tbs. of water, and sprinkled with sesame seeds. The loaf is then loosely covered with lightly oiled plastic wrap and allowed to proof at 74ºF for about 1½ hours. The loaf-bearing parchment paper is then slid off the baking sheet and placed onto an oven peel. The parchment paper and loaf are then slid directly onto the baking stone of a preheated oven and allowed to bake at 425ºF for 35 minutes, under steam for the first 15 minutes of baking.

33 Responses to “Scali”

What a beautiful bread. I’ve never tried or even heard of Scali before, but it looks like you did it justice.
The braiding technique video was very useful. I’ve never braided bread before, but have wanted to. The video made it a little less intimidating.

Syd, while Baker’s Percentage is an important tool, it doesn’t necessarily tell the whole story. Don’t forget, in this recipe I am using King Arthur Organic Select Artisan flour, a flour which has a lower protein content than most typical bread flours. The resulting dough, while firm, is not as stiff as the hydration percentage would lead one to believe. Regarding the quantity of yeast used, that was purely for expediency sake. Less yeast could be used but fermentation times would need to be extended accordingly. And you are quite right, non-fat dry milk is the same as non-fat milk powder.

Wow, this bread is really good! I added a little bit of sugar to my second loaf as I thought the first one was a bit too savory. Either way, came out fantastic and even my wife who normally doesn’t eat bread had a few pieces!
Next I just need to work on the tightness of the loaf but I’m happy with the results (see: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nick_/3923399750/)!

Thank you very much Steve for this recipe. Grazie mille! I tried it and it was delicious. I love the video because it’s easy to understand the consistency of the dough and how to give it the right shape. Great!
Paoliccia

Paoliccia, prego. Learning to bake bread truly involves all of the senses. Since one cannot ‘feel’ the consistency of the dough over the Internet, viewing a video of how the dough behaves is, I believe, the next best thing.

[...] in a hot dog-like bun, the the classic chilled lobster salad is served on a toasted and buttered scali bread. This is an airy, artisanal Italian loaf popular in Boston. There is no celery in the [...]

Hi Steve
Re.: to #6, what if I’m using strong flour? What’s the hydration? What’s the dough supposed to feel like?
Could I used full cream powdered milk instead of non-fat as that’s all I have in the pantry.

Hi Sian,
Without knowing and working with your specific flour, it’s difficult for me to give you an exact hydration percentage. The best advice I can give you is to add enough water to bring the dough to a medium-to-firm consistency. I’ve never tried this formula using a full cream powdered milk, but I see no reason why that should present any particular problem. The texture of the resulting crumb may be somewhat different than that obtained above, though.

Hi Steve,
I just subscribed to your very nice site. However, it seems that if one does not have, nor do they intend to purchase, an electric mixer — alas, they must go elswhere. Too bad! I wonder how they did it in the old country–I wonder how my grandparents did it, they baked Scali three time a week (I remember my grand dad putting down his stinky black cigar on the porch because he was called in to do the braiding)? Most formula and recipe instructions provide methods for hand mixing as well as machine procedures –is there no manual method to arrive at the level of quality your breads exhibit? It seems like a worthy quest! At least when the lights go out—we can still bake bread! :>)
‘
With sincere respect,
pg

You may want to peruse some of the other posts on this blog. In particular, there is a post specifically discussing hand mixing, found here. Additionally, there are a number of recipes posted to this blog that make use of hand mixing.

Steve,
Thank you for the email! However (You knew that was coming –huh?), I did not see the comment on the site today and the email mentioned places to go:’here’ and ‘here’ which are usually links on your site. They did not appear to be links in the email. Making this loaf is important to me, so where can I go (keep it clean!) ?

Your photos are superb and I would like to use a couple as screen savers —I have a Bread Porn Collection! Do you mind if some of your shots are ‘lifted’? I like to send my kids photos of bread to motivate them to bake more often.

Because volume measurements are notoriously imprecise (bulk densities of ingredients can vary widely), greater numbers of serious bakers, including those in America (where I am located), have taken to weighing their ingredients instead of measuring by volume (i.e., cups, tbs., tsp., etc.). Once a baker starts weighing his or her ingredients (whether in grams or ounces), he or she usually finds a greater consistency in the products produced.

Thank you for getting back to me in a timely fashion I appreciate it What kind of scale do you recommend I will try measuring my ingredients thank you looking forward for your reply
Thanks
Chefscook 🍞🍞